FURTHER INTO HOLYWOOD

by Beli Cantu.

July 3rd, 2001.

I was out of luck and left alone to die. I was struggling through my last year of college and still lived with my parents. I had taken a modest job to gain experience as an industrial designer; a career that I still don't know what the Hell it means, and because of that I wasn't doing exactly that well. Just when I felt that I had nothing to hold on to a beacon of hope arrived when I found out about the upcoming Ozzfest featuring my dearest rock and roll crush Marilyn Manson. That summer would be my first encounter with the infamous shock rocker so I set my mind to it and fulfilled my wish.

Now did I mind that I was pissing my dad off? No, I told him a while later about my mischievous journey. He was the only one who never really got my passion for Manson, probably because he had never been that involved into that kind of music. My mom, on the other hand openly admitted that I adored him: in fact she once said he was "very creative" after having watched The Beautiful People video.

So there I went all by myself with a bunch of metalheads I hardly knew all the way up to San Antonio, Texas, more specifically in a small town named Selma.

Without bluffing you could perceive very clearly that there was a lot of expectation to see Manson despite all the controversy generated after Columbine as this time they were part of a new tour called God, Guns And Government, inspired by the The Love Song lyrics:

"Do you love your guns, yeah, your god, yeah, your government? Fuck yeah!"

We were also highly interested in seeing Ozzy Osbourne's reunion with Black Sabbath and all the other nü metal bands that were just starting out there such as Linkin Park, Mudvayne, Slipknot, Papa Roach and many more. There was one other band that rock awesomely hard though, Otep, lead by Otep Shamaya that caught my eye.

But that was only the beginning. Everywhere I turned around there were Manson fans who openly expressed their passion by simple things such as sporting the ever so scandalous tees or even dressing up like him. To my surprise I even saw an old lady with a tattoo on her back that resembled a bald-headed Manson with wings on each side. I just thought to myself; "Alright!"

It took Slipknot's frontman Corey Taylor to introduce Marilyn Manson as the next act. The stage went completely dark and the crowds swarmed in to take their seats. One by one the members emerged out of a foggy stage, starting with Madonna Wayne Gacy, aka Pogo with a sort of bouncing, deranged keyboard, lead guitarist (at that time) John 5 , bassist Twiggy, Ginger Fish and in the end the man of the hour. The crowd roared as he paraded wearing an over the top outfit consisting of a leather tight corset, high platform army boots, a sort of black war painting that resemble a thick black streak underneath his nightmarish eyes and the tail of a dead horse hanging from his left arm.

He acted liked he owned the place, no doubt about that. One of the most impressive acts was him rising attached through a crane to the tune of Cruci-fiction In Space. A rusty sign HOLYWOOD stood in the background. It became awfully hard to stop looking as one moment suddenly got more exciting than the last one. A medley of all his best eras was flawlessly performed including The Antichrist Superstar, the decadent glam sound of Mechanical Animals...The closing  number The Beautiful People, an all-time favorite featuring Manson standing on an orange colored podium with the emblem that they had at the time; a cross made out guns and rifles. And as he swung from side to side like a broken doll in the heat of the moment I screamed my heart out and called out his name. For a while he stopped and so did the beating of my heart for I truly thought that there was a response.

He came confident and vanished triumphantly but exhausted; so was I, but pleased. I had never experienced someone so devoted to his performance. We enjoyed every single moment of it and proved once and felt demystified and I gladly encouraged others who had the chance to go without prejudice. Because, at the end of the day, wasn't that just entertainment? I believe it was...

Of course, this experience only did wonders for one thing; to stay more and more engaged with the Manson universe.This wouldn't be my first time and it certainly wouldn't be the last one...